21 | July | 2011 | Fitness & Feta

I taught three classes this week, yay! 🙂

Tuesday night was Muscle Power, right after Liz’s Kix of course! My typical Tuesday night double sessions are my favorite. I want this t-shirt so I can wear it on Tuesday nights.

Wednesday night I subbed for Ed’s spin class. I haven’t taught (or taken!) spin in a long time, so it was great to be back at it and switch it up for my muscles. My legs are definitely feeling it today.

This morning was Burn & Build (cheesy alliterative fitness class name). This one is my weekly 6am class before my 9-5 workday, and pretty much the reason why I need to eat lunch around 10:30 am every single Thursday!

Side Note – The Y has been a mob scene! There were at least 6 people in line yesterday ready and waiting with their BuyWithMe deals. If you got one and are going to redeem it before doing a class, make sure to get there nice and early!

My workouts went extra well this week. Not sure if it’s because I was out of my regular “routine” last week while I was in New York and I’m just excited to be back in the swing of things, or if it’s because I made three new CD’s for each of my classes. Yes, I still rock CD’s most of the time. Sometimes I use my iPod, but really I just haven’t gotten around to syncing all my old music with my new computer (well – newest computer that work will give me!) and transferring all my playlists. A project for the to do list, which is never-ending lately it seems.

Anyways, I figured I would share my playlists this week in case anyone was looking for some new workout music ideas! And while I’m at it, might as well share the workouts too. Enjoy!

MUSCLE POWER

Playlist:

Move Your Body – Eiffel 65
Black Horse & the Cherry Tree – KT Tunstall
Poker Face – Lady Gaga
Somebody Told Me – The Killers
Pump It – Black Eyed Peas
Idealistic – Digitalism (side note, this is a song from Just Dance II! One of my favorite songs to put on my playlists. Check it out! The routine on the Wii is actually a great workout, too.)
Forget You – Cee Lo Green
Love Shack – B52’s
Black Train – The Brew
Paralyzer – Finger Eleven
Last Friday Night – Katy Perry (I’m not sick of this one yet!)
Bugaboo – Destiny’s Child
Dress You Up In My Love – Madonna
Blinded When I See You – Third Eye Blind
Look After You – The Fray

Workout

I did a Swiss Ball based class because I found a new website for new Swiss Ball workout ideas. Check it out! If you click around the website enough you can find ideas for other “themed” classes – bands, crossbow, etc. Really cool. Swiss Ball classes are GREAT for an extra core workout because they are geared toward targeting those muscles more.

Fun Athena fact: I broke my right wrist in 5th grade because I tried to stand and balance on a Swiss Ball to show off in front of my friends. Clearly I didn’t have good core strength then because I immediately fell off and snap, my wrist broke. Oh and it was April Fool’s Day so my mother didn’t believe me that I actually broke a bone. Thanks, Georgia.

Anyways, each different “combination” that I did on Tuesday night included two strength moves and one cardio interval move. We did each combo twice with little variations the second time through.

WARMUP

COMBINATION ONE

QUADS – One legged ball lunges, keeping one foot rested directly behind the body on the ball.
BICEPS – One legged bicep curls (standing on one leg, the other is resting on the ball in front of the body)
CARDIO – Jumping Jacks
REPEAT – Repeat combo using other leg. For a jumping jack variation, I had them add leg crosses.

COMBINATION TWO

QUADS – Squats with ball lift to the front diagonal
CHEST – Pushups with feet resting on the ball
CARDIO – High knees
REPEAT – Repeat combo, this time with a plie squat and pressing the ball forward, instead of a regular squat. We also did those new spiderman pushups I mentioned in “Gym Characters” instead of another pushup set on the ball.

COMBINATION THREE

CALVES – Calf Raises, holding the ball overhead
TRICEPS – Weighted extensions, in bridge position
CARDIO – Jump Rope
REPEAT – For a variation on the calf raises, we repeated with the toes turned out to the side (first position in the ballet world). For the second round of tricep work, we did one armed dips, this time sitting on the ball instead of bridging.

COMBINATION FOUR

CORE – Ball rollouts
GLUTES / HAMS – Ball Reverse Bridge
CARDIO – Mountain Climbers
REPEAT – This time instead of rolling the ball during the Ball Reverse Bridge, I had the class balance with one foot on the ball, then bring the knee in and back to the ball, then switch legs. For Mountain Climbers, we targeted obliques instead of keeping the knees straight forward.

COMBINATION FIVE

SHOULDERS: Lying prone on ball, lateral raises
CORE: Crunch series
CARDIO: Standing jump switches
REPEAT: For shoulders instead of a lateral raise we did a Ball Rear Deltoid Raise with elbows bent. And for the core we finished with planks on the ball, jackknifes, and pikes.

COOLDOWN / STRETCH

SPIN

Playlist / Workout Combo:

I Walk Alone – Oleander = Warmup / Stretch
Unsung – Vanessa Carlton = Alternating fast run between high 3rd & low 3rd
Love Song – Sara Barelis = Run in second with squat isolations
Jump, Jive & Wail – Brian Seltzer Orchestra = Sprint intervals
Angel of Harlem – U2 = Standing Climb
Hot Tubs & Tool Sheds – Straylight Run = Jumps from seated to second
Love & Memories – OAR = Run in low third, on chorus sit and spin faster
Workin’ Day & Night – Michael Jackson = Seated run, on chorus add tension, then sprint through resistance in high 3rd.
Just Can’t Get Enough – Black Eyed Peas = Seated climb with leg isolations
State of Massachusetts – Dropkick Murphys = Fast run, flat road
King of Wishful Thinking – New Found Glory = Slides
Everybody Dance Now (Remix) – Bob Sinclair = All positions
The Devil Went Down To Georgia – Charlie Daniels Band = Sprint
Waiting for the Sun – The Shore = Cooldown
Silver Lining – Rilo Kiley = Stretch

BURN & BUILD

Playlist

A lot of the songs on this morning’s mix were ideas I found on another blog! Check this out – I really enjoyed reading through some of these song suggestions and I was excited for the new music today.

Right Here, Right Now – Fatboy Slim
Headsprung – LL Cool J
Mr. Vain – Culture Beat (This one got a lot of smiles this morning!)
Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5 (New catchy favorite of mine! It’s from The Voice. )
Jai Ho – A.R Rahman
Round & Round – Bodyrockers
Hot – Smash Mouth
Stoned in Love – Chicane
Funhouse – Pink (Three notes for this one – First, inspired by Jen’s Muscle Madness mix a few weeks ago! Second, for other instructors – it’s hard to count during this song when Pink is counting down as part of the lyrics. Third, can’t get this out of my head today!)
OMG – Usher
She Wolf – Shakira
Give Me Everything – Pitbull (because I just can’t get enough of this song!)
Love Generation – Bob Sinclair
The Edge of Glory – Lady Gaga
Dance Like This – Wyclef Jean
Little More Time – ZOX
Australia – The Shins

Workout

This morning I did a similar style class as Tuesdays with the two strength and one cardio move per combination. Today’s theme used a step instead of a Swiss Ball though.

WARMUP

COMBINATION ONE

CARDIO – Jump Rope (with actual ropes, there were enough to go around this morning!)
LEGS: Around the World Combo. Forward lunge onto step, side step into squat, back lunge – repeat on same side throughout step.
BICEPS: Regular curls, then continue on one arm while holding the other halfway.
REPEAT: With other leg & other bicep isolation

COMBINATION TWO

CARDIO – Run Ups on the Step
GLUTES/ SHOULDERS – Standing on step, glute lifts & front raise (1 leg)
CHEST – Pushups with one hand on step, one hand on floor
REPEAT – With other leg for the glute lift, and other hand up on step for pushups

COMBINATION THREE